Interview with Denver Craft Brewery Founder Todd Waufle
WATCH this interview with Denver craft brewery founder, Todd Waufle, in which he talks Satire’s beginnings, beers, and kitchen, The Loaded Squirrel.
How’d you get started brewing?
My wife Stacy was at an estate sale, or garage sale, a sale of some kind, and for $40 she got most of the stuff it took to home-brew beer. It sat in the basement for years collecting dust but then I decided to give it a shot one day and the first year I brewed about four batches but over a period of time I got caught up with it, had a lot of fun with it, and became a serial home brewer – I had a brewing problem.
How do you decide what to brew?
I think it’s just a constant challenge and a constant experiment. You get an idea, you take it, and you put it into a batch and see how it turns out. Some of them turn out good, some of them don’t turn out so good. But it’s just the fun in the experimentation of it all. And it may be an idea from a customer and it may be an idea from ourselves, but it’s just playing around with it that makes it fun.
How many beers do you have on tap?
We typically have 20 beers available. Sometimes more, occasionally less, but most of the time right around the 20 range. They vary on all different styles of beer. We don’t lock in on one certain style. We don’t just make Belgiums or German styles, English styles, we literally make them all. If we get an idea we want to try to create and put that together.
Tell us about the names of your beers.
We definitely have different names for our beers and that stems from the whole satire theme – to have fun. The humor, to have a good time, to make fun of ourselves, to make fun of whoever is popular, just to cut up and have a good time. And, in my mind, I think every beer has its own personality. Some places you go you get a stout, and IPA, a pale ale, or a Belgium ale, and that’s fine but we believe every beer has a story, every beer has a personality, and we want to put that on a page in front of somebody so they can not only drink their beer but experience their beer and get a feel for it.
What’s the Loaded Squirrel?
The Loaded Squirrel came about, ironically, driving to church one day. We were brainstorming thinking of names for the brewery and my youngest daughter, Laila, just out of the blue said how about the loaded squirrel? And we all died laughing because we imagined this dead drunk squirrel, wobbling around, falling. We adopted that name for our kitchen.
We call everything in there squirrel stuff. From squirrel meat to squirrel appetizers, it’s all squirrel-based, and my family literally sat around for probably a year test marketing foods, meats, bread, and we just thought about the silliest names we could possibly think of and a lot of them ended up on the menu.
Tell us about the interior of your Denver craft brewery.
We brainstormed around the table and came up with a lot of ideas and my wife Stacy, we told her we wanted an old-world look, and she made this place way nicer than I ever expected. She just has a knack for design and the talent to put things together so she’s done that and handcrafted a lot. My son runs the kitchen, my other son helps. My oldest daughter helps out with serving and bussing tables and even my young girls have gotten involved and they do whatever they can…it is an entire family business.
Join Todd and his family for delicious crafter brews this summer at Satire. Satire remains open for sit-down dining and drinks. We’re exempt from the recent June 30th bar closure mandate as we offer a comprehensive menu from our kitchen, The Loaded Squirrel. Here, you’ll find a huge outdoor patio and plenty of space to spread out safely. Call (720) 275-0667 for beer/food pickup and delivery too.